Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of South Charlotte.
Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Ep # 136 Decoding Charlotte's Hot Housing Market with Expert Mike Sposato
The pendulum of Charlotte's real estate market is swinging toward balance after years of seller dominance, according to local expert Mike Sposato of Carolina Realty Advisors. Drawing from fresh Canopy MLS data, Sposato reveals a remarkable 42% year-over-year increase in available properties across the Charlotte metropolitan area. For buyers who previously faced bidding wars and pressure to make immediate decisions, this shift creates breathing room to explore options and negotiate terms.
Charlotte's market transformation doesn't signal a downturn but rather a normalization, with the average time from listing to closing extending from one month to nearly three months. "That's still, in historical terms, great," Sposato explains, positioning the current environment between a seller's market (one month to sell) and a buyer's market (twelve months to sell). "Between four to eight months—that's a healthy market," he notes, suggesting Charlotte is progressing toward equilibrium while still favoring sellers overall.
Despite increased inventory and normalization, property values continue their upward trajectory with average sales prices climbing 5% year-over-year. The spring season brings traditional heightened activity, with lakefront properties on Lake Norman and Lake Wylie performing exceptionally well. Premium neighborhoods like Dilworth, Myers Park, Waxhaw, and Cornelius maintain their desirability, particularly among out-of-state buyers relocating from high-cost regions who find Charlotte offers remarkable value. With approximately 130 new residents arriving daily, Charlotte's housing market remains fundamentally strong even as it adapts to changing conditions.
Whatever your real estate goals, understanding these evolving market dynamics is essential. Connect with Mike Sposato and Carolina Realty Advisors at CarolinaRealtyAdvisorsGroup.com or by calling 704-619-7070 to navigate Charlotte's real estate landscape with confidence and insider knowledge.
Carolina Realty Advisors
Mike Sposato
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Regina Lee.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, and today I'm welcoming back Mike Sposato. He is the owner broker for Carolina Realty Advisors here in Charlotte. Welcome, mike.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I know you are a true real estate expert here in the Charlotte metro area and I'd love just to dive right in and just ask you can you describe the current real estate market in Charlotte for us?
Speaker 3:Sure. So what I'm hoping that we can do together is start to do a monthly program here where we can help you know, the people who are listening and watching the podcast understand what's going on in the greater Charlotte area statistically and so how we do this. Our local MLS or multiple listing service, is known as the Canopy MLS, and they've been keeping really detailed statistical data for many, many, many, many years. They look at things like how many properties were listed, say, april of 25 versus April of 24. Were there any price increases from 24 to 25? What's the average time on market, how long has it taken someone on average to sell their home, and a bunch of other data points that are kind of important. And if you can read the tea leaves, you can get a greater understanding of the overall real estate market.
Speaker 3:So, that being said, I'm not sure your viewers can see this or not. It's fine, they don't have to be able to see it, but you can see. It says canopy up here and it's just one sheet of. I've got 50 different pages in front of me, but what I'll tell you, which is really what's happening here, the biggest thing that we're seeing is in April of 25, we saw a 42% increase in the amount of properties that were for sale as compared to April of 24. 42%, that's huge.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of inventory out there.
Speaker 3:It is Yep, and you know the kind of the story behind that is. If you are selling, you know people that you've been on the fence, I want to sell, I want to sell, I want to sell and you're trying to time the market. I'm not saying it's too late by any means, I'm just saying had you made this decision a year ago or even two years ago, when it was multiple bids, it would have been a much different situation. But you know, for sellers, they got to understand it's not that the market's changed. And so two years ago it was. You put your house on the market and I think it was 31 days until you closed and got your proceeds.
Speaker 3:It's not that way anymore. So, according to this information, when you put your house on the market now, it's going to be almost three months versus one month, which is still, in historical terms, great. You know the even part of the market. The market is kind of like a pendulum, right, and so when you have, you know where it takes one month to sell your home, that's a seller's market, and when it takes 12 months to sell your home on that pendulum, it's a buyer's market, and in the middle that, somewhere between four to eight months. That's a healthy market. So we're not even at four months yet.
Speaker 3:It's still, you know, three months from list to close. But it's moving in the direction of a healthy market versus a seller's market. And what that means in real life is, if you're buying, you no longer have to rush out there on the first day and be ready to go over, ask price and that kind of thing. In some cases, you might Believe me, there's still some really hot neighborhoods, but on average you have time to look around, do some competitive and comparative shopping, figure out what you like and then also make an offer where you can negotiate again versus, you know, the seller, you know being able to get over list price.
Speaker 2:What has caused this big shift since last year?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, it's a lot of things. Some people go to the most obvious, which is interest rates. You know, interest rates have gone up and down a little bit here and there. I'm not even exactly sure what they are today. They're probably six and three quarters or something like that, which, again, historically, is fine, you know. But beyond the interest rates, I think you know the economy was so bad in 2024 that a lot of people lost confidence, so to speak, that we have new things going on. People are waiting to see a market change in the economy where it's notable, like interest rate drop, price of groceries go down, just general things that we could see, where it's like, you know, telltale signs that things are a lot better now, you know.
Speaker 3:So people are kind of like a wait and see approach still.
Speaker 2:So that's kind of what's happening well, in spring, I would think, is historically the hottest time of year to buy and sell. Is that true?
Speaker 3:it is true, um and largely because you know there's always going to be a sector of the market that's going to be not impacted by schools. You know timing around schools. But now that we're in the spring and schools are getting ready to end here the next couple of weeks, a lot of families are entering into the market, as well as other types of you know clientele. So this is where you usually see the big spring market and we're seeing it. I mean there's, there's plenty out there for buyers to look at and for sellers whenever they're listing.
Speaker 3:Right now this is not a time to go. Well, I know your comps say my house was worth 490. I want to try for 550 because if you do that, you're going to be on the market for a while. Then you're going to start dropping, drop and drop and then trail on the market and it's going to be bad. So this is a time of year where, if you're selling, you need to have a competitive sales price and a good, experienced agent who knows how to market and represent you and get you the most money. Because it's no longer the day of, I'll just throw it out there and see what happens right.
Speaker 2:Do you find in working with your clients that when you're getting ready to list that, it's hard to convince them of that?
Speaker 3:it's probably the hardest part of my job. Yeah, because people have a, you know, pride of ownership job. Yeah, because people have a, you know pride of ownership and you know they believe because, oh, when I built my house, I put in this coaxial here and I did this and that and blah, blah, blah. But the truth is nobody cares. What they care about are going to be things like the kitchens, you know, upgrades, bathrooms a lot, the neighborhood school, you know so people bathrooms the lot, the neighborhood school, you know so. People kind of get defensive about things that don't really have real monetary value, and so what happens is is they don't want to try to be reasonable and sometimes, as a realtor, we have to walk away from those kinds of people, because you spend a lot of money and time and effort to help market their property and if they're not going to be realistic, it's unfortunately a lot of money and time and effort to help market their property, and if they're not going to be realistic, it's unfortunately a waste of time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you see a lot of people from outside of Charlotte coming to Charlotte. Like, who do you deal with most? There are people just moving around here within the city mostly.
Speaker 3:Several of my last closings and clients have been people moving here from out of state.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I do a lot of. I mean my personal business is pretty. It's a big geographic area. I work from below Rock Hill to above Statesville, over almost all the way to Asheville and then past Monroe, so it's a big area. But I do a lot on, like waterfront properties and lakefront properties and several of my last clients have been buying, you know, property right on Lake Norman or Lake Wiley townhomes, condos, big single family homes and I think that market is still really nice. It's a good market to be in. But your standard moving within Charlotte from one suburban neighborhood to another, that's it's. It's a little bit slower.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, post-covid, you know people are always measuring their business against those unbelievable years. If they were one of the businesses who just went nuts and it's unrealistic to think, you know we can do some of those numbers again. But do you think home values will ever go up like they were a year, two years ago?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, those are a lot of. That was multiple bids and that was people that were desperate and willing to do things. People that were desperate and willing to do things. And right now, today, we're not going to be in a multiple bid situation unless it's again a very unique situation on one of the lakes or in a really sought-after neighborhood within Charlotte or Waxhaw, weddington, whatever You'll see the occasional multiple bids still, still, but they're rare and they're becoming more and more rare.
Speaker 3:So, um, prices are going up. Um, you know the stats are saying it. Um, you know, let me see, just looking here, the average sales price went up five percent um year over year. So I mean, they're still going up. Um, and I don't foresee prices going down. Only time I see that is if a seller comes out and just well, let's try it for 30 days at you know, 10 over what it's supposed to sell for, and see what happens. And then, when no one looks at it and they see what happens, then they drop their price. But, um, you know, aside from that, you know prices are, you know they're still continuing to go up at a nice and normal increase.
Speaker 2:Which sub markets seem to be doing the best?
Speaker 3:Again, the lakes are good, especially this time of year. You know both lakes, even Lake Hickory, which I do work out there. Um, of course, in town neighborhoods are good, like dillworth, myers park um, you know, probably you're gonna see some some really robust sales and like wax on weddington, cornelius. So some of the more expensive neighborhoods are doing really well because some people coming from out of state are in a little bit of a better position. They might be cash buyers and they want to be in some of the better neighborhoods like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's amazing, when people move down from New York and some of those places, what they can get for their money here. Yeah, we offer a lot. Yeah, and the word is out. Do you happen to know how many people move into Charlotte daily?
Speaker 3:I don't know the exact number anymore. I know that it was a little bit over a hundred a day. That was probably this past fall like 130, some a day, which is crazy. It's a lot.
Speaker 2:Well, I look forward to chatting with you again. This is a lot of fun for you to you know as a true expert residential commercial. Keep us up to date, whether we're a buyer or seller in the area. So, mike, thank you very much for joining us. Lastly, tell our listeners how to find you.
Speaker 3:Well, there's a couple of different ways you can Google me. My name's Mike Sposato S-P-O-S-A-T-O. A lot of things going on all over the Internet, but our real estate company is Carolina Realty Advisors and our Web site is Carolina Realty Advisors Group dot com, where you can always call or text me at 704-619-7070.
Speaker 2:Mike, thank you again. I look forward to speaking with you next month.
Speaker 3:You got it. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPSouthCharlotte. com. That's GNPSouthCharlotte. com. That's GNPSouthCharlotte. com, or call 980-351-5719.